Carlos Monsiváis

During 1950, Miguel Contreras Torres led a group of filmmakers to officially denounce William O. Jenkins' monopoly on film theaters, which was built throughout the country upon crime and corruption. Ever since, Uncle Miguel was ridiculed and eventually forgotten, but it is certain that his proclaim announced the separation of Mexican cinema and its audience. Discoveries may be found in the films made by Miguel, and bringing back to life these moving pictures might recover this history that was never told, a story that is almost lost and that Contreras Torres himself tried to pass on through his writings in The Black Book of Mexican Cinema.

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Biographical account of the brilliant painter, featuring talks with Leonora Carrington during the later stage of her life in her home in Mexico.

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Terror, transsexualism, and an eternal cult film. What is on the mind of horror film director Juan López Moctezuma and his fans, Manolo and Lalo, who are not only obsessed with the Mexican horror film 'Alucarda', but also believe in their hearts that they are its true characters? After finding the director in a psychiatric hospital, they kidnap him to make him remember his gloriously twisted past. An unclassifiable documentary film that uses interviews, stock shots and recreations of a past that may only have existed in the nightmares of its protagonists.

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Germán Cipriano Gómez Valdés Castillo, a young radio announcer from Cuidad Juárez, succeeds in drawing attention to the pachuco movement through his character Tin Tan, laying the groundwork for a new form of binational and mass linguistic expression: Spanglish. He soon became a leading figure in theater and film on the American Continent. Singled out by critics as a destroyer of the language, he quickly won the approval of the public. His ability to improvise revolutionized the film industry. His talent as an actor, singer, dancer and comedian contributed to the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema. From El Hijo Desobediente to Capitán Mantarraya, from Cuidad Juárez to Havana, from mambo to rock, the legacy of Tin Tan makes him one of the great icons of Mexico today. This film tells his story as it has never been told before.

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"Ni Muy Muy, Ni Tan Tan, Sim­ple­men­te, Tin Tan. Tin Tan was one of the grea­test com­de­dian-​ac­tors in the his­tory of Me­xi­can Ci­ne­ma. He be­gan his film ca­reer du­ring the early years of what be­ca­me the Gol­den Age of Me­xi­can Ci­ne­ma. Th­roughout the ma­jo­rity of his mo­vies he plays the cha­rac­ter of a pa­chu­co; the Chi­cano/Me­xi­cano in zoot suit, th­ro­wing out the ti­ri­li ph­ra­ses and words, and jam­min the jitty-​bug. With the sty­le and the slang down to a tee, he was pi­cked up in Cd. Jua­rez Chihuahua by an ac­ting trou­pe. Tou­ring ex­ten­si­vely th­rough-​out Me­xi­co with the trou­pe lan­ded him in Me­xi­co City with film con­tracts. It was in tho­se films that Tin Tan ex­po­sed the ima­ge of the pa­chu­co, which Me­xi­can Youth adop­ted. From the de­sert bor­der-​towns of Jua­rez y El Pa­so the sty­le took off in va­rious parts of the coun­try, most no­ta­bly in Me­xi­co City

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After returning from a trip, a young dentist discovers that her home has been ransacked. Determined to recover part of her belongings, the protagonist initiates a criminal process within a corrupt and ineffective justice system that turns her life into a nightmare.

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A documentary on the function of pornographic film and art during and after the Mexican revolution.

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Anthology of clips from classic-era Mexican films, with reality-footage of elderly actors discussing their memories of the period.

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A young architect returns from Europe to live in the house of his uncles and cousins, where someone pretends to be the Devil.

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A couple on the verge of getting married gets mixed up with a gang of thugs in this routine crime drama that underscores the Socio-economic disparity in the Mexican culture. The upper-class couple rides along with outsiders who go club-hopping and resort to petty thievery. After their adventure, the couple questions whether or not they are right for each other.

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When a young boy steals billiard balls from a local saloon, a stranger is charged with the crime. The local layabouts find there is no reason to hang out at the bar without being able to shoot pool, and the boy entertains thoughts of forming a gang to steal more billiard balls in hopes of making money.

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Second of two films that make up the collaborative film "Los Bienamados" (The Beloved, 1965). Claudia, a young aristocratic girl travels to Switzerland to recover the corpse of her brother, Juan Luis. As she flies back home to Mexico, in flashback it is revealed that she and her brother had an incestuous relationship and that she managed to drive his fiance, Claire, to her death... with tragic consequences for all of them.

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A documentary about vacant lots and warehouses that were suddenly transformed into spaces where the band could listen to the heroic groups that dared to defy the authorities and the moralists of the time. These venues, known as “hojos fonqui,” were so makeshift that they almost always lacked lighting, proper equipment, security, and even a box office: sometimes the musicians would find that tickets were being sold from a car parked outside the venue, which would then mysteriously disappear before they could claim their share.

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Anthology of clips from classic-era Mexican films, with reality-footage of elderly actors discussing their memories of the period.

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